(no subject)

[imthepilot]

[From here]

Bodhi leads Galen up to their rooms, setting the cat and the basket down. "How about we take a bath. And get you out of those ridiculous clothes."

Comments

[galen_erso]

Galen presses the button, then swipes across the screen as the instrument instructs him.

[imthepilot]

Bodhi is a little bit smug about being right. "That symbol looks like a capture. Maybe this thing recorded some images."

[galen_erso]

Galen taps his finger against the symbol, and a tapestry of images opens under his fingers.

[imthepilot]

"I'm guessing the most recent ones would be the ones at the top." Bodhi strokes Galen's shoulder reassuringly. Whatever they find, he's here.

[galen_erso]

Galen taps it, and there is a capture, of the Caribbean beach, and a large fishtail vanishing into the waves.

[imthepilot]

"That looks like the scales you found in your hair." Bodhi points out with trepidation.

[galen_erso]

The next one is a moving picture -- of a woman with bare breasts and a fish tail shimmering with those scales, jumping into the sea with a wave of her hand.

[imthepilot]

"I guess that's a mermaid." Bodhi tries not to sound bitter or worried. "She's pretty." If you like that sort of thing."

[galen_erso]

Next follow pictures of the mermaid draped on the man's lap, drinking something colourful from tall glasses, taken by the man himself with the device at arm's length.

Nothing else seems to have happened, apart from the earliest three pictures, which show the creature turning up in the water.

[imthepilot]

Bodhi breathes a sigh of relief and takes the device off Galen, dropping it over the edge of the bed. Before kissing Galen firmly.

[galen_erso]

"Drinks," Galen says, grinning. "Duh."

He pulls Bodhi close and melts into the kiss.

[imthepilot]

"No wonder you feel so off. Those drinks looked strong." He runs his hands through Galen's hair, stroking and smoothing.

[galen_erso]

"And it's not as if I were habitually drinking lots," Galen adds. "Ouch. I think I need more tea."

[imthepilot]

Bodhi nods and kisses him again, getting up to make a fresh pot of tea and putting together a plate of seed-cakes. Desert in bed.

[galen_erso]

Galen sits in bed and watches him, smiling lazily while his wonderful lover moves around naked.

[imthepilot]

Bodhi is most himself in their kitchen, naked or not. He pauses to feed the cats before coming back to bed with a tray of tea and goodies.

"I think I must have been lucky. Whoever I was left me with the urge to bake. Maybe he was hungry."

[galen_erso]

Galen helps himself to some tea and a few crumbs of sweet seedcake.

"You mentioned pink," he says, "before we were side-tracked by mermaid scales and terrible drinks?"

[imthepilot]

Bodhi nods and pulls the clothes out from where he stashed them. A pink button down shirt and pink jeans. And a big pair of sunglasses. He doesn't remember it but there was a massive teddy bear too but he gave that to Nori.

[galen_erso]

"That is very pink," Galen says. "A bright, chalky pink that jumps straight into your eye. I'm sure it looked -- cute."

He blushes.

[imthepilot]

Bodhi holds it up against himself. "Really?" He's deeply unconvinced.

[galen_erso]

"Cute, because so unexpected," Galen says. "You know, I've never seen you dress up. You wear clothes because you have to and because only I get to see all that's underneath. Not that I'm any different, most of the time..."

[imthepilot]

He puts the clothes down and comes back to sit on the bed. "I guess that's true. Either of are people who dress up. Everything I ever owned was either whoever I had or a uniform. Even what I wear now is ether practical or comfortable."

He'd never really thought about it before. "The clothes I have here are the ones the bar gave me. I never thought to ask for anything different."

[galen_erso]

"I wear what is comfortable," Galen says, "because I no longer have to wear Imperial uniform. Which I suspect was designed to make you feel your own insignificance, as a cog in the machinery of the Empire."

[imthepilot]

Bodhi smiles over the rim of his tea. "Is it wrong that I thought you looked handsome in it? But I liked taking it off you more than seeing you with it on."

[galen_erso]

"The uniform, you mean?" Galen says, with a little smile, almost teasing. "Well, perhaps because it was me inside."

He shrugs.

"I have no idea what to wear for our wedding, though. Anything that would be suitable and not outlandishly strange is bound to anger somebody."